Seven months ago, MassChallenge was midway through fielding applications for its 2020 programs when the coronavirus pandemic suddenly slammed the U.S. The 11-year-old accelerator, born in Boston and now operating programs around the world, has pivoted again and again since then, switching to a virtual format for its accelerators, then its awards programs.
"Our ceremony tonight reflects the changes that MassChallenge and so many organizations have had to make over the course of the year," MassChallenge chief program officer David Herrick said during a livestreamed awards ceremony on Thursday.
This summer, MassChallenge Boston welcomed 100 startups into its 2020 cohort, 52 of them local. Farther south, MassChallenge Rhode Island hosted 30 startups, 11 of those local to the Ocean State.
Last month, MassChallenge unveiled the top startups in its 2020 programs, including six in Rhode Island and 20 in Boston. The accelerator took the the Internet to reveal the 34 winners that would collectively bring in more than $1 million in cash and investment prizes from this year’s Austin, Boston, Houston and Rhode Island accelerators.
The online-only event may not have been quite as formal as a typical MassChallenge Awards affair, but it still injected energy into the innovation community. And it's clear that as America teeters into the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, MassChallenge's leaders have faith that innovation will help bring us out.
"I say we look to startups and the new entrepreneurs who are launching new and scalable businesses and ideas," said Chris Denson, host of the "Innovation Crush" podcast and the MassChallenge Awards host for the evening. (He also quipped that MassChallenge could be rebranded to "masked challenge.")
Without further ado, your 2020 winners from the MassChallenge Boston and Rhode Island programs. Descriptions provided by MassChallenge.
MassChallenge Boston
Diamond Award - $100,000
- Teratonix (Pittsburgh, PA): Teratonix provides the highest efficiency RF harvesting solution to generate electricity from cellular and Wi-Fi for battery-free IoT, Wearables, and Medical devices.
Platinum Awards - $75,000
- Presso (Atlanta, GA): Presso is a robot that can clean, disinfect, and press clothes in just under FIVE minutes.
- VERI Nano, Inc. (Boston, MA): Veri Nano is an innovative bionanotechnology company with novel encapsulation and antimicrobial nanotechnologies for human and animal health.
Gold Awards - Up to $50,000
- Fractal (Cambridge, MA): Fractal brings the power of a workstation to any Internet-connected device.
- FreightFlows (Boston, MA): FreightFlows provides predictive analytics for global trade.
- IndustrialML, Inc. (Somerville, MA): IndustrialML makes factories smarter with machine learning, combining process monitoring and real-time analytics to keep production lines running.
- Kura AR (San Francisco, CA): Kura AR are making people’s lives more productive and better connected by solving the bottleneck to AR adoption with the worlds’ best AR glasses.
- Loo Works (Accra, Ghana): Loo Works manufactures sustainable components from solid waste materials to create container-based toilet solutions in Ghana.
- myBiometry (Boston, MA): myBiometry is a platform to monitor and manage patients with chronic disease using biomarker data and ML to identify patients at risk of treatment failure.
- ReelData, Inc. (Halifax, Nova Scotia): ReelData develops artificial intelligence and computer vision technology for the aquaculture industry in order to help feed billions sustainably.
- TANG app (Cambridge, MA): The TANG app allows Filipinos abroad to send airtime and money home and the receiver in the Philippines to pay bills and p2p.
Sidecar Awards presented to MassChallenge Boston startups
FM Global Resilience Prize
- Paper Crane - $25,000 Award - (Boston, MA): Paper Crane shows great potential in rapid deep data analysis, aiming to empower organizations such as insurance companies, to do more with their data, faster.
- Airgility - $10,000 Award - (College Park, MD): Airgility’s ability to develop artificial intelligence that is hardware agnostic could increase the safety of those that work on elevated surfaces or inside confined spaces.
Innospark Artificial Intelligence Prize
- Articulate Labs - $25,000 Award - (Dallas, TX): Articulate Labs makes mobile, adaptive devices to help knee osteoarthritis and knee replacement patients rehabilitate on the go during everyday activity.
- Starling Medical - $25,000 Award - (Houston, TX): Starling Medical is developing a tech-enabled urinary catheter for patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction.
The Quin Impact Awards
- CauseEDU - $25,000 Award - (Quincy, MA): CauseEDU helps students and their families to better understand the true cost of college & develop sound strategies to pay for it.
- Out of the Box - $10,000 Award - (Cambridge, MA): Out of the Box is a mobile, modular classroom-in-a-box with accompanying software for quality preschool learning to take place anywhere.
MassChallenge Rhode Island
Platinum Award - $75,000
- Graphene Composites USA (GC USA) (Providence, R.I.): GC USA combines graphene and aerogel to make the strongest, lightest, most resilient products ever, enhancing the quality of life.
Gold Award - $25,000
- Nautilus Defense LLC (Pawtucket, R.I.): Nautilus Defense builds advanced textile and composite-integrated systems for monitoring structural assets and their environments.
Sidecar Award
FM Global Resilience Prize
- Paper Crane - $25,000 Award - (Boston, MA): Paper Crane shows great potential in rapid deep data analysis, aiming to empower organizations such as insurance companies, to do more with their data, faster.
- Power Polymer - $15,000 Award - (Wimberly, TX): Power Polymer’s patented solution shows significant promise in reinforcing existing structures, with the goal to enhance a property’s resilience.
- Airgility - $10,000 Award - (College Park, MD): Airgility’s ability to develop artificial intelligence that is hardware agnostic could increase the safety of those that work on elevated surfaces or inside confined spaces.
American Inno is the media partner for MassChallenge 2020.
